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Wraith
The Wraith are a vampiric hive-based species that harvest the 'life-force' of other humanoid beings for nourishment through suckers on their right hand palm. Countless worlds in the Pegasus galaxy live in constant fear of the Wraith, who return periodically to cull their human herds. After taking their fill, the Wraith hibernate for centuries, watched over by Keepers, before they wake and feed again. On a few occasions the word "Wraith" means "the Wraith language" or "knowledge of the Wraith language", as when a character said "My Wraith is not good." History The Lanteans first encountered the Wraith many thousands of years ago, however, the Wraith race is over 100,000 years old according to Todd. After arriving in the lifeless Pegasus galaxy with Atlantis, the Ancients seeded several planets with humans and Stargates. One of the planets held a creature called the Iratus bug, which began feeding on the humans. Eventually, they began to take on advantageous human characteristics, such as larger brain mass, bipedal locomotion, and opposable digits. Once awoken, the Wraith went to war with the Lanteans and fed upon the humans of the Pegasus Galaxy. This was obviously after many thousands of years because the Wraith had to become advanced enough for interstellar travel. The Wraith were actually created around nine hundred years before Atlantis was abandoned. In an effort to make themselves immortal in case they couldn't Ascend, the Ancients began experimenting on transforming themselves into immortal beings. On a frozen planet, the Ancients built a facility where they experimented on one hundred male and one hundred female test subjects taken from around the galaxy while creating a weapon that would wipe out their test subjects if they ever lost control of them. All but nine of the females died in the experiment while ninety-nine of the males survived. Under the Ancients testing, the Wraith began developing the characteristics and powers they would later have. Eventually, the Wraith learned how to use their telepathic abilities and tricked the guards into releasing them. The Wraith stole the weapon that could kill them and the facility's ZPM and escaped through the Stargate to Athos. The Ancients chased them, but by the time they reached Athos, the Wraith were gone. The Ancients continued to chase the Wraith, setting a trap for them when they briefly attempted to return to Athos.Eventually, the Wraith were able to steal ships and hide the ZPM and weapon. It is suggested that a mollusk creature found on one of their original sanctuaries, Cair Leonid, would become the basis for their hive ships. The Wraith eventually split into various bands and the original nine females became the first Wraith Queens, known as the First Mothers, while the males would become their commanders. Lantean - Wraith War The dominating (and at the time only) power of the Pegasus galaxy were the peaceful and technologically advanced Lanteans, the group of Ancients that had left the Milky Way millions of years ago to escape the plague destroying their race. The Wraith felt a genetically-inherited hatred for the Lanteans, because the Lantean's experiments had made them the way they were. They could never return to their normal lives, and felt compelled to go to war with the Lanteans for retribution. But the Lanteans were far more advanced than the Wraith, with one Ancient warship being able to inflict massive damage on several Hive ships at once with their devastating Drone weapons, while at the same time suffering little to no damage themselves due to their powerful shield technology. It first, the Wraith were at a major disadvantage against the advanced warships of the Lanteans who, in their overconfidence, began to send their warships deeper into Wraith territory. The Wraith, after a period of time and with great cost to themselves, managed to capture several of these vessels and obtain the Zero Point Modules powering a number of them. Using these incredible power sources, the Wraith began creating a cloning facility which they used to increase their numbers against the Lanteans, giving them a much needed advantage and allowing them to permanently turn the tide of war in their favor. The Lanteans began to slowly fall back into their own territory, which the Wraith continued to absorb into their own, facing the powerful weapons platforms and outposts protecting Lantean-controlled territory in their effort to destroy their enemy. This continued for years until Atlantis was all that remained of the Lantean empire. In a final attempt at ending the war, the Lanteans sent a delegation to meet with the Wraith to negotiate a truce. The Lantean delegation was protected by their most powerful warships, but they were ambushed by the Wraith's massive fleet. After that great battle, it was only a matter of time before Atlantis fell. All that remained of the Lantean empire by this point was their capital of Atlantis, which the Wraith lay siege to for one hundred years, held off only by the powerful shield protecting Atlantis, the city's drone weapons, and the Lagrangian Point satellites deployed throughout the star system. Eventually however, the satellites were either destroyed or damaged beyond repair, and the city's supply of drone weapons was being diminished far faster than it could be replaced. Finally, the Ancient Council decided to sink the city, abandon the galaxy through the Stargate and return to Earth, leaving the Pegasus galaxy at the mercy of the victorious Wraith, who began to gorge on their human herds. Shortly after this period, the Wraith came under assault by a new enemy: the Asurans, who were abandoned experiments of the Lanteans. To combat this foe, the Wraith disabled the directive in the Asurans' base code that forced them to attack the Wraith. The Asurans retreated to Asuras and remained there, leaving the Wraith again in control of the galaxy. Stargate Renaissance Soon... Physiology The Wraith are characterized by a pale blue or light-green epidermis, yellow eyes, and white, black, or red hair. As a species they have a social structure similar to that of ants or other hive/nest-based creatures, with distinct physiological differences between castes of Wraith, tailored to facilitate different functions within the society. They also possess powerful telepathic abilities. They have displayed in several episodes phenomenal physical strength, along with phenomenal physical agility. Their eyes can glow in darkness, giving them night vision and thermal vision abilities. The majority of Wraith so far observed are male. Adult female Wraith have been seen to fill the higher echelons of Wraith society as 'Queens'. Beneath the Queens are workers, soldiers and drones. The lowest echelons are distinctly different; they lack intelligence and are larger and much more muscular. Wraith exhibit bipedal locomotion and have mostly humanoid characteristics. These characteristics include noticeable sexual dimorphism; female Wraith have protruding breasts while male Wraith exhibit noticeable facial hair. While it is unknown how Wraith reproduce, it is likely that they procreate similarly to placental mammals, given their presumed origin and other sexual characteristics similar to those of humans. The "soldier" caste, presumably also male, exhibit noticeable muscular definition as compared to the male Wraith of the "leadership" caste, who are considerably meeker. The reproductive nature of the Wraith and their life cycle is not entirely understood. There do appear to be young female adolescent members of the race. Based on their appearance, the Wraith appear to maintain a more human appearance until they reach their equivalent of puberty. However, it's not known whether this specimen was a normal member of the species or whether she would have metamorphosed into one of the female hierarchy. Furthermore, it's not known whether all young Wraith start off in this form. The Queens do appear to make use of a method of fertilization similar to insects where they secrete genetic material which results in warrior Wraith being born in pod-like structures. It was believed that this process occurred on their Hive ships. It's unknown how the two reproductive processes relate to one another, but considering that the cloning facility where the second method was carried had long been dormant before it was discovered by the Atlantis expedition, the most likely explanation is that the Wraith are capable of breeding in a similar way to humans and only rely on the pods when the situation requires them to produce a large army in a short amount of time. The Atlantis expedition knows little of Wraith physiology, but some facts have been learned. Though humanoid in appearance, the Wraith are genetically closer to the Iratus bug than humans. The Wraith possess none of the normal human inhibiting proteins, giving them a frighteningly efficient regenerative mechanism in their genetic makeup, allowing their bodies to heal themselves. Their regenerative abilities are so powerful that, as long as the cells are properly nourished, it is unlikely that the Wraith ever die from natural causes the way that humans do. These abilities are powerful to the point that dismembered body parts have the ability to move on their own. This makes the Wraith incredibly resilient and able to survive weapon fire and the crushing depths of the ocean floor without any form of mechanical assistance. While the Wraith share many elements with the Iratus bug, there are aspects of their biology that are similar to humans. They contain all the necessary organs within their body that are required to digest food, even though they receive no nourishment from food as adults. Feeding Nourishment for the adult Wraith is the human "life force". Humans or very similar beings (e.g., Ancients or other Wraith) are the only food source that can properly nourish a Wraith, although they are capable of cannibalism. It is also unknown whether or not the Wraith require fluids (e.g., water), to facilitate other bodily functions. The exact science(if there is one) of the life-force drain is not described, although it is portrayed as a materialistic process. This drain is depicted as though it could be likened to the sipping of a drink through a straw. The Wraith can drain their victims slowly in order to torture and obtain information, or just to perform an act of sadism. As the victim is drained of life, the victim experiences pain and appears to age rapidly. This is not actual physical aging, but a by-product of the feeding process. Although the Wraith possess teeth, they do not use them to puncture the epidermis of a human. Instead, they drain the life force through the use of a specialized organ that resides in the palm of their right hand. This is slammed into the chest of the human typically where the heart resides. The nails puncture the skin and the feeding organ begins to drain the life force. During the feeding process, the victim is injected with a special enzyme. It strengthens the human body temporarily and ensures that the heart continues to beat. This is so the victim does not die immediately. The feeding process is so traumatic and without the special enzyme, the body of the human would shut down far sooner than the Wraith would like. Simply put, they make a victim stronger so they can take more time to kill them. In most cases the enzyme is released slowly into the bloodstream throughout the feeding process. Large doses of this enzyme have been known to increase the strength, speed and agility of regular humans. Lt. Aiden Ford became the first of these 'supermen' when he received a large dose of the enzyme after the death of the Wraith feeding on him. The numerous drawbacks of the high dose include altered brain chemistry and addiction to the drug requiring addicts to actively search for and kill Wraith to obtain it. The Wraith are known to employ the feeding mechanism and the enzyme as a form of interrogation tool in order to brainwash humans. The process involves constantly taking the life of a person and returning it back to them making the human see how they would look as they age. The return of their life has a euphoric quality on the human. This was one of the methods through which the Wraith gained worshipers. The enzyme is a key component of this process and the worshiper becomes addicted to the feeding. Being deprived of this results in a process similar to Wraith enzyme withdrawal and can be incredibly painful. This ensures that the worshiper remains loyal to the Wraith and are quite willing to betray their ideals or former friends for the gift the Wraith give them. Due to the traumatic nature of the feeding cycle, the stronger the individual the more indoctrinated they become as weak individuals die in the process. Despite the use of a special enzyme during the feeding process, the act of draining a life force from a human is extremely painful for the prey. For some, even a partial feeding can cause the person to simply die from the trauma they sustained. It appears that there have been attempts by the Wraith at improving the efficiency of the feeding process. The Wraith can consume human food and drinks, but apparently it gives them no nourishment and is strictly done for pleasure. This is apparently considered to be a more sophisticated type of enjoyment, and not all Wraith do this, with most cited examples being those Wraith who for some reason have formed an alliance with humans. When the Wraith are young however, they consume normal human foods (which explains their possession of a fully functional digestive system, as such a function is useless in the adult Wraith due their method of feeding). Telepathy While the Wraith have tongues and vocal cords, their primary means of communication is telepathic in nature. In effect, the Wraith have developed a telepathic network, allowing for communication over vast distances. It has been determined that the proper introduction of Wraith DNA into human DNA, likely via gene splicing, permits humans the ability to access the Wraith mental network, although the humans who do connect can be summarily controlled by the Wraith, due to superior psychic abilities. Even a small amount of properly introduced DNA is enough to allow this telepathic ability to occur; it remained even after a number of generations of the genes being "watered down" by breeding with humans without this modification. After the initial 'infiltration' by Teyla Emmagan into the telepathic network, the Wraith began to segregate their communication network to prevent sensitive information from being received by their enemies, although this has been attributed to the Wraith Civil War requiring them to work in private to sustain individual Hives. The Wraith are capable of projecting psychic projections making shadowy ghosts appear in a human's field of vision. This tactic is typically employed during cullings and battle in order to confuse the enemy. They use the hallucinations to keep the people in one place so it makes them easier to cull. During this time they use a shadow/ghost to scare the people away from the forest. A trained mind is capable of ignoring this threat and instead focus on the Wraith. The Keeper of a Wraith hive's telepathy is even more enhanced allowing them to cause humans to kneel before them and implant suggestions in their mind. This makes for an excellent interrogation tool and a Keeper is capable of gathering data from a captured human with ease. This trait appears to be consistent among female Wraith as the Hive Queens are also capable of these abilities and are able to incapacitate humans who fall under their telepathic abilities. These telepathic abilities can even get a human to unwillingly work for a Wraith. A Queen was capable of using this ability to determine if there are any impostors within a hive which means only people with Wraith DNA were capable of fooling a hive queen. The telepathy serves as a potent communication tool with the Wraith being able to interact with one another over great distances. However, individually, they were unable to use this bridge between stars. Furthermore, groups of Wraith or even former Wraith are capable of combining their abilities allowing them to summon their kind to rescue them making them a dangerous threat even when captured. However, this system can be exploited and Wraith are able to keep their thoughts shielded from their own kind, preventing one of them from realizing the intentions of the hive. Hive Queens possess some of the strongest telepathic abilities known, and are quite capable of disarming military personnel by causing them to drop their weapons or incapacitating them. They were able to disarm an opponent in order to feed easier. This telepathy even allowed them to take over the mind of a human with Wraith DNA who are then controlled like a puppet by the Queen. Similarly, two powerful telepaths with Wraith DNA are capable of taking control over a Queen, but this can be a dangerous process as the Hive Queen works to destroy the intruders' mental defenses. In addition, it appears that they are capable of destroying a sentient mind when given the opportunity and seemed capable of killing an unborn child within their mother's womb through telepathy alone. Wraith Queens are capable of killing lesser Wraith and other Queens telepathically by mentally stopping their bodily processes. To outsiders, the Wraith may seem like a united race that are determined to cull all humans in their path. However, they are known to possess an extremely strong territorial instinct. This makes inter-Hive cooperation rare and multiple Hives engaged in the culling of a planet can cause tensions to rise. They are extremely fierce in the defense of their own territories and kill any trespassers that enter their feeding grounds. Politically, the Wraith appear to have lacked any form of united government since the end of the war with the Lanteans.After being awakened from their slumber by the arrival of the Atlantis expedition, the Wraith attempted to discover the location of Earth, which was a rich feeding ground that contained far more humans than the worlds of the Pegasus galaxy combined. The Wraith had grown increasingly desperate due to the lack of food as they had prematurely woken up from their hibernation. With too few humans to feed the waking Wraith, the species entered into their civil war with the strong attacking the weak. As such, it is uncommon for two Hive Queens to cooperate with one another. However, the rise of threats that might destroy the Wraith has led to rare moments of cooperation. Despite this, treachery is possible among a hive's ranks with some members willing to support a rival hive. The Wraith are focused around a Hive-based society similar to some species of insects, but are not a collective mind despite their telepathy. They are given names originating from the instinctive "feel" of their telepathic presence and their role in society; for example, Todd's name among the Wraith is Guide, as is Lt. Colonel John Sheppard's.The leaders of a Hive typically consisted of female Hive Queens who are in command of a Hive ship. They are a vital component within their society as without them, new soldiers cannot be bred. While this is the case, there are cases where a male has held the authority of ruler of the hive. Beneath this leadership cast lie the majority of the Wraith which consist of males. The first category consists of intelligent "commanders", who serve as lieutenants and scientists. Beneath them lies the masked warriors who perform most of the general duties such as defending the hive or participating in attacks or cullings. Another caste present within Wraith society of which little is known consists of a group known as Keepers. This caste was tasked with maintaining the organic technology of their race. Perhaps as a result of their Hive based society, the Wraith appear to show little regard to their own lives with the male warriors as well as commanders perfectly willing to make use of self-destruct mechanisms to kill themselves if facing capture. Wraith Dart pilots have even demonstrated the willingness to engage in suicide plunges if their carrier vessels have been destroyed. Furthermore, they are quite willing to die as long as their enemies die with them. However, if there is a potential threat or resource of their hive that might be lost in such a maneuver, then the individual Wraith are willing to prevent actions that might destroy it. There are a rare few, however, that seem willing to bargain for their own lives. The Wraith also seem to exhibit a form of racial purity and seem to distance or even be hostile towards those members of their kind that have been turned into humans. They are noted to be capable of sensing the humanity in these Wraith. In addition to these qualities, the Wraith have shown several ruthless traits such as not showing sympathy for the fallen and not giving mercy to their enemies. They also seem to state that there should not be any retreat in a battle. Though there are times when they do seem to retreat when there have been a great deal of loss suffered. One practice that demonstrates that harsh nature of Wraith society is the fact that they are able and willing to engage in cannibalism in times of starvation. Hive Queens have been known to threaten their lieutenants by feeding on them if they did not accomplish the tasks set on them. The Queens have also shown no hesitation on feeding on a member of their kind that was formerly a Wraith and had been turned into a human. In battle, commanders have been documented to feed upon dying or injured Wraith warriors to continue fighting, even for mere seconds. Closely linked to the Wraith and their culture are the Wraith worshipers, who live among their masters serving as their eyes and ears among human cultures. These followers are known to worship the Wraith and are devoted to them. Some of them are actually broken through Wraith interrogation techniques and become addicted to the feeding process. Beyond those followers, there are no other humans that work among the Wraith as they are considered food. There are a rare few humans who are not fed on and instead outfitted with tracking devices thus turning them into "runners", which serve as sport for the Wraith. This meant that they were quite despised by the humans of the Pegasus galaxy. The Wraith themselves have shown disgust towards the Asurans, who they consider abominations for not being alive and thus immune from the Wraith feeding process. Unlike humans and other species, the Wraith can be described as an almost nomadic culture which are based on their massive Hive ships and vessels which travel space in order to cull inhabitants for feeding. Typically, the security of these vessels were minimal as the Wraith are unaccustomed for intruders reaching their great ships, being the only major space flight capable race for ten thousand years. While this may be the case, the Wraith are known to make use of planetary based installations for research and to serve as strongholds, although these almost always have Stargates in space preventing access without a ship. Within their culture, showing hesitation or apprehension as well as other such qualities was a weakness in the Wraith's eyes and treated harshly. They worked through instinct, and power struggles were brutal with assassinations of queens by other queens who usurped power to become dominant. This was only present with the queens themselves as a male who accomplished the task was typically killed. This was because the hive who had their queen slain would be terrified of continuing to live without a ruler which meant that they were often quick to accept a hive queen in power. It was noted that Wraith were very good at playing games, and were intelligent enough to overcome the technology barrier and adapt the previously incompatible technology of other races for use with their own systems. Despite possessing telepathy, the Wraith do have language which appears to be a derivative of the Ancients. It should be noted that the wraith could have genetic memory considering that an unusual amount of Wraith can recall the war with the Ancients even though the war was over 10,000 years ago, and only three Wraith have been confirmed to have lived that long. As a result of the Atlantis expedition's presence in the Pegasus Galaxy, both directly and indirectly, a number of variant subspecies of Wraith have developed who are viewed with hostility by the Wraith. These include the Human-form Wraith, the Bug People, Michael's experiments and, most notably, the Hybrids. Culture Little was known of Wraith culture itself except that it was focused upon culling the human populations of the galaxy for feedings. Concepts such as beauty and comradeship do appear to be prevalent within the vampiric species however. One Wraith that had been captured by the Genii for an unspecified amount of time declared that his escape attempt was worth seeing the stars once again. In addition to this, the same Wraith performed the Gift of Life on a human which they only did so to their most devout of worshipers and their "brothers". Despite being hated by a majority of humans within the Pegasus galaxy, the Wraith were known to be served by Wraith worshipers who would be allowed to live for their obedience. The Wraith as a collective species go through long hibernation cycles, lasting hundreds of years. Their massive Hive ships contain untold numbers of hibernation pods. During this time only a small number of them move about, enough to keep their victim worlds on edge. The sleeping masses are watched over by a small group led by the Keeper, one Wraith designated with their care whose death would signal their premature awakening—as it did when she was killed by Major John Sheppard. Technology The technology used by the Wraith, while advanced compared to the majority of civilizations in both the Milky Way and Pegasus galaxies, is far inferior to the technologies of the Lanteans, Asgard, and Malecathi. Wraith technology is unique in that most of it has an organic base to it. The Wraith are one of the few races that lack shield technology. This is possibly because Lantean weapons technology can tear through all but the most advanced shields with minimal effort, and so they would have been a waste of time and energy. Something which has yet to be covered is what, exactly, powers Wraith vessels; moving a Hive ship and powering its massive weapon banks must consume vast amounts of power. However, it is known that whatever powers them is nowhere as efficient as Lantean power sources. Wraith technology is rarely able to reach its full potential due this inefficient power generation, which was demonstrated when a Hive ship was equipped with at least one Lantean Zero Point Module, making it all but invincible, possessing far improved structural integrity, hull density and weapons capabilities. This ship was incredibly powerful, able to best even a fully powered Atlantis in battle, and it took a nuclear weapon being detonated on the inside of the ship to destroy as it was too powerful for weapons fire, even Ancient drones, to take out. There is also an unknown weakness in all Wraith technology, possibly the above mentioned power issue, which the Lanteans believed would allow them to turn the tide of the war to their favor again if exploited correctly. Category:Races